Summoner 2

Summoner 2 looks like it might be quite good. It certainly appears
to have all the credentials of an accomplished adventure game, it's
got some RPG staples in its armoury and real-time combat to boot.
An intriguing, exciting and entertaining sequel to "one of the
PS2's biggest selling role-playing adventures" then? Weeeell...

Fight for your right

Yes, you look very hard. Can we go now?

This is
Summoner 2 in three words: Hack, run, slash.

This is Summoner 2 in more words: While the game certainly has
aspirations to action-RPG greatness, it falls far, far short of the
mark by instead boiling down to a trudging mess of relentless
combat, character statistics and more quests and side-quests than
you could shake some kind of magic stick at. It actually
starts off quite well, as you're dropped straight into the thick of
things fighting off invading pirates on the deck of your ship in
the middle of a typhoon. Dropping you snippets of information here
and there to help you along the way, the game eases you into your
role as Maia, the Queen of Halassar, quite elegantly. You have no
idea as to the history of your character or the world you inhabit,
though, aside from a completely baffling FMV just after starting a
new game.

It is after that short bout of introductory battling, however, that
the dialogue starts up and kicks the grossly bloated, complicated
and bewildering plot into gear. We're immediately expected to know
all about the Prince of Neru, who's nicked off with your Book of
Prophets into the Wyrmlord's Palace in... well, you get the idea.
So the adventuring proper starts on a small island littered with
ruins inscribed with completely meaningless... inscriptions.
Joining you on the island is your assassin sidekick, who you can
also take control of whenever you feel like it and take advantage
of her particular skills if you can be bothered. You will at times
have a team of up to four characters assisting you in your quests,
each with their own abilities and each customisable with the
application of skills points that are earned when levelling up.

So you go on your way, looking
for this Neru fella, finding stuff in chests and the like, and
battling off hordes of random floating ghost things, big
spear-throwing plant things and pirates every couple of minutes,
and it starts to get really, really tedious. While there appears to
be some kind of story behind all the ruins and inscriptions - which
does become quite interesting - the constant interruption of the
random respawning enemies hampers your ability to properly
investigate, and so your interest eventually just turns to getting
your quest over and done with. And so it goes for the rest of the
game.

You beast

Don't fancy yours much

While pushing the mostly impenetrable plot along with dribs and
drabs of dialogue and cut-scenes, the game rarely deviates from the
stop-start approach of running about, finding things and then
fighting off some enemies. I wouldn't mind so much if the combat
were at all exciting, but it's just pretty basic button-bashing
mediocrity. Some interest is created in being able to use one of
your several "summons" - Maia at certain points throughout the
adventure comes across giant runes which grant her the ability to
summon a beast of tremendous power for a limited time, forcing you
to use your summoning ability strategically and appropriately in
times of need.

The game pads out its lack of engrossing combat with an enormous
collection of quests to complete, which would take even a hardened
player a good few days solid playing to finish up completely. As a
queen, you also have a kingdom to run, and occasionally returning
to your palace you're able to listen to advisors and petitioners
asking for your funding, permission and input into keeping your
people happy. You can even take the time out for some sparring in
your palace grounds, just in case you weren't tired of randomly
bashing the square button already. This creates a sort of diversion
from the action, and would be pleasant if there were more to do and
see without the threat of whatever random beast feels like squaring
up to you next, as per the regular quests. As it is, though, there
are a lot of corridors, and a lot of stairs and a lot of talk about
prophecies that need fulfilling. If I hadn't spent half an hour
trying to find the way out of the place the first time I was there,
I would have done so sooner.

Summoner 2 is also visually below par. The graphics
occasionally rise into above-average levels of detail, but the
low-poly character models, stilted animation, blurry textures and,
for the most part, blocky location design knock the game back a few
years aesthetically. The acting is actually surprisingly good a lot
of the time, but the mostly humourless dialogue lends an
unavoidable flatness to the speech - you're more likely to nod off
to sleep than sit on the edge of your seat waiting for the next
shocking plot twist to be divulged.

Conclusion

This is neither the time nor the place for getting your groove on

Summoner 2 is average. There isn't another word that more pointedly
describes the experience; the graphics are average, the plot is
average, the adventuring is average, and the combat is
decidedly average. It lets itself down with the rubbish
fighting bits, and by taking itself far too seriously, particularly
with a plot that is so sprawling and hard to decipher that you lose
interest before it even gets a chance to get going. If the combat
engine had been more considered and dynamic as a compliment to the
adventure elements instead of being a tacked-on attempt to appeal
to more action-oriented gamers, it could have improved the
underlying game immensely. Only then would it be worth more than a
passing glance on a rainy Sunday when there's absolutely nothing
else to do.

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